How a Climate Hazard Turned to Disaster Due to Unchecked Infrastructure Development in Northern India

Article by Elizabeth Colebourn in the Wall Street Journal

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The devastation in Uttarakhand in northern India this week was the result of a climate hazard – sudden and extreme rainfall.

But human actions and decisions are what turned a hazard into a disaster.

Climate change and development are combining to create a potent mix increasing the risk of disasters from extreme weather events, which are happening with greater frequency.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a report in 2012 on Managing the Risks to Extreme Events and Disasters , which concluded that even without taking climate change into account, the risk of disasters will continue to increase as more people, infrastructure and businesses – are exposed to weather extremes.

Rapid, unchecked development is making India’s people and its economy vulnerable.
Hasty construction of buildings on the banks of rivers in Uttarakhand, which have now been swept away by the floods, is a tragic example of this.

The state’s draft action plan to tackle climate change recognized the risks of poor planning. It noted that the blasting and excavation when constructing the 40,000km of roads in the state disturbed the land, as has the deforestation required to make room for such infrastructure.

“These operations often create geological disturbances in the mountains, and set into motion dynamic force causing the movements of slip zones, cracks, fissures and weak planes,” the action plan said.
Many thousands of people are stranded after landslides, triggered by heavy monsoon rains, destroyed roads and blocked access routes in the mountainous region.

The state had an average annual growth rate of over 12% between 2004-2012, driven largely by new manufacturing, transport, warehousing and hotels. Some environmental activists are now asking why this construction was allowed to happen in eco-sensitive zones,  including along the Bhagirathi River that burst its banks on Saturday June 15.

Disaster risk reduction measures are in evidence across India, but not at the scale needed. Uttarakhand has an extensive training and communication programme, focused on building awareness for disaster preparedness. Guidelines and regulations for disaster-resilient construction are in place. However, like all states, the funding and political capital available for such preventative actions is dwarfed by that banked for relief efforts.

The real lesson from Uttarakhand’s tragedy is that reducing the risk of an extreme weather event becoming a disaster is not the responsibility of just those with ‘disaster’ in their job title.
A new approach is needed which takes a long-term perspective and sees disaster risk and adaptation to climate change as completely integral to development

Uttarakhand should not be singled out for this apparent lack of foresight. Every state in India is at risk of different climate extremes – whether an especially fierce heat wave, cyclone, drought, flooding or sea level rise – and there are examples from across the country of planning and investment decisions that do not take these risks into account.

Climate change is projected to make the situation even more severe and uncertain.  The IPCC report also states that by 2050 we should expect not only more regular extreme weather events, but also unprecedented extremes;  Cyclones will hit areas that they have not reached in the past, the report says.

Increasing the resilience of communities to the slow, steady onset of the impact of climate change, such as unpredictable rains and high temperatures, should be the aim.

The Government of Uttarakhand has in fact taken the first step, by drawing up a State Action Plan on Climate Change across sectors which includes managing the risks of disasters. It is titled “Transforming crisis into opportunity” and aims to build the resilience of the state’s development plans to the effects of climate change. However, the challenge now is to implement the plan.

Scientists have to work with uncertainties and policy makers have to plan for an unclear future. But, what we know for sure is that if development does not take into account the risk of natural disasters, then the loss of life from extreme weather, will continue to increase.

Elizabeth Colebourn, is Project Manager and India Lead at the Climate Development Knowledge Network, an alliance of organizations led by PricewaterhouseCoopers and based in London working on climate change compatible development.